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Battle of Carthage (c. 149 BC)
| strength2 = 500,000: 90,000 defenders, 410,000 civilians | casualties1 = 17,000 killed | casualties2 = 445,000 killed, 55,000 enslaved | campaignbox = }} The Battle of Carthage was the main engagement of the Third Punic War between the Punic city of Carthage in Africa and the Roman Republic. It was a siege operation, starting sometime between 149 and 148 BC, and ending in spring 146 BC with the sack and complete destruction of the city of Carthage. After a Roman army under Manius Manilius landed in Africa in 149 BC, Carthage surrendered and handed over hostages and arms. However, the Romans demanded the complete surrender of the city, and surprisingly to the Romans the city refused, the faction advocating submission overturned by one in favor of defense. The Carthaginians manned the walls and defied the Romans, a situation which lasted for two years. In this period, the 500,000 Carthaginians inside the wall transformed the town into a huge arsenal. They produced about 300 swords, 500 spears, 140 shields and 1,000 projectiles for catapults daily.Appian of Alexandria, The Punic Wars, "The Third Punic War" The Romans elected the young but popular Scipio Aemilianus as consul, a special law being passed to lift the age restriction. Scipio restored discipline, defeated the Carthaginians at Nepheris, and besieged the city closely, constructing a mole to block the harbor. In spring 146 BC, the Romans broke through the city wall but they were hard-pressed to take the city. Every building, house and temple had been turned into a stronghold and every Carthaginian had taken up a weapon. The Romans were forced to move slowly, capturing the city house by house, street by street and fighting each Carthaginian soldier who fought with courage born of despair. Eventually after hours upon hours of house-to-house fighting, the Carthaginians surrendered. An estimated 50,000 surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery. The city was then leveled. The land surrounding Carthage was eventually declared ager publicus, and it was shared between local farmers, and Roman and Italian ones. Before the end of the battle, a dramatic event took place: 900 survivors, most of them Roman deserters, had found refuge in the temple of Eshmun, in the citadel of Byrsa, although it was already burning. They negotiated their surrender, but Scipio Aemilianus expressed that forgiveness was impossible either for Hasdrubal, the general who defended the city, or for the defectors. Hasdrubal then left the Citadel to surrender and pray for mercy (he had tortured Roman prisoners in front of the Roman army[http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_punic_24.html#%A7118 Appian, Punica] 118). At that moment Hasdrubal's wife allegedly went out with her two children, insulted her husband, sacrificed her sons and jumped with them into a fire that the deserters had started.Appian of Alexandria,The Punic Wars, "The Third Punic War" The deserters too then hurled themselves into the flames, upon which Scipio Aemilianus began weeping. He recited a sentence from Homer's Iliad,Homer: Iliad; book 6 a prophecy about the destruction of Troy, that could be applied now to Carthage's end. Scipio declared that the fate of Carthage might one day be Rome's.Polybius: Histories, Book XXXVIII, Excidium Carthaginis, 7–8 and 20–22. English translation and comments by W. R. Patton. Loeb classical library, 1927, pp. 402–409 and 434–438.[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/38*.html Online text of Polybius Histories] In the words of Polybius: Since the 19th century, various historians have claimed that the Romans plowed over the city and sowed salt into the soil after destroying it, but this is not supported by ancient sources. References * Duncan B. Campbell, "Besieged: siege warfare in the ancient world", Osprey Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-84603-019-6, pages 113–114 Category:149 BC Carthage 149 BC Carthage 149 BC Category:Mass suicides Carthage 149 BC Category:Military history of Tunisia Category:140s BC conflicts Category:Looting Carthage